The raw uranium is exported to France for processing via Cotonou, Benin's capital.

Niger's French-run mines come under the control of the French atomic energy commission.

Our correspondent says that the selling of uranium is basically determined by Cogema and the Niger authorities have no real role in making the deals or distributing the materials.

Mr Hamadou said as much in his a televised address: "Niger cannot sell its uranium to whoever it likes: it has neither the technological means, nor the military capability, nor the ability to do so."

Joseph Wilson, a former US diplomat who went to investigate the issue in Niger concluded as much, saying that controls on Niger's uranium mining were far too strict for any deal with Iraq to be credible.